HOW TO PREPARE FOR A REALLY LONG RETIREMENT

Longevity is the biggest financial risk for retirees. Take these steps well before you retire to grow and preserve your savings.

- SANDRA BLOCK

Follow a local newspaper (or local news website) long enough and you’ll probably come upon a story about a 100-year-old resident who still bowls (or golfs), goes square dancing twice a week and occasionally enjoys a shot of tequila. About 97,000 Americans are centenarians—100 or older—and a handful of those are supercentenarians— individuals who have celebrated their 110th birthday.

Maybe you’re convinced that you won’t live that long, especially when you get up in the morning and feel complaints in your knees. And you may have seen reports that average U.S. life expectancy has declined to about 76, the lowest since 1996. But those numbers were skewed by the COVID-19 epidemic and don’t reflect the likelihood that you’ll actually live much longer than that, says Barbara Selig, senior wealth management adviser at TIAA. For a 65-year-old couple, there’s a 50% chance that one spouse will live to age 93 and a 25% chance that one will live to 97, according to the Society of Actuaries. And while living into your nineties beats the alternative, it increases the risk that you’ll outlive your savings. “Longevity is the biggest financial risk for retirees,” Selig says.

With that in mind, you should start planning for longevity well before you retire—in your fifties or, ideally, even before that. The steps you take now to grow and preserve your nest egg will go a long way toward ensuring that your eighties and nineties are comfortable and worry-free.

SAVE THE RIGHT WAY